Comics continue to crush culture, with Marvel Editor Sana Amanat giving a great TED talk on “Myths, Misfits, and Masks”; more MOOCS, on making this time; and that Grampa animated movie we were teased with going live on the interwebs. Of course, comics don’t always make positive headlines for their cultural sensitivity, and last week Valiant snatched the dunce’s cap away from Dan DiDio with their somewhat insensitiveRai relaunch. And there’s the ongoing issue of superhero diversity, rendered team by team in comic graph form over at Comics Alliance.

“I can’t really picture the average person going to the trouble of curating his own little comic section, much less reading a new and unfamiliar strip for months to build up a relationship with it. There’s so much other content available—instantly and all for free—that there’s no reason to stick around if you’re not immediately enthralled. We consume everything like potato chips now. In this environment, I suspect the cartoonist’s connection with readers is likely to be superficial and fleeting, unless he taps into some fervent special interest niche. And that audience, almost by definition, will be tiny. It’s a very different world from the days when everyone in America knew who Popeye, Dick Tracy or Charlie Brown was.” So says Bill Watterson. Thoughts?